Welcome to Bimmerfest -- The #1 Online Community for BMW related information! Please enjoy the discussion forums below and share your experiences with the 200,000 current, new and past BMW owners. The forums are broken out by car model and into other special interest sections such as BMW European Delivery and a special forum to voice your questions to the many BMW dealers on the site to assist our members!

Hi, I have got a major problem with my 88 528E that I need to resolve or im f**ked.
I have made a post about this before, figured I could be more specific this time.

So heres the deal. 5 days ago I had some running around to do in the morning, at this time car works perfectly fine. Later that same day on my way to work the car dies.
I am able to restart it and drive another mile before it dies again. This time it won't restart.

I end up leaving it in the parking lot at work for 3 days untill I can get down to it again.

So here's in as much detail as I can describe is what happened yesterday when fiddling with it. Attemped to start car first time. got a little hesitation then it catches and starts.
I sit with it idling around 650RPM's(about 100RPMs less than it normally does.) for about 5 minutes. There were three things that seemed a little out-of-the-ordinary, Idle is about
100RPMs less than normal,Idle is rougher than usual, and I heard a few popping sounds that sound kind of like minor back-fires.

After the 5 minutes of idling and the car not dying yet, I decided to try and drive it a little bit around the parking lot.
Everything seemed OK not flawless but not janky either.

So I decided to take it out on the highway... bad idea. Everything worked fine untill I accellerated to 40MPH(about 2,000RPMs.) It's like the engine misses and the RPMs Drop.
As I keep my foot on the gas pedal, But it's not getting any gas. dropping speed as well as RPMs. Untill the RPM's reach about 1,500RPMs The engine catches and functions properly again. Untill i reach 2,000RPM's I get the same problem again. This happened to me a total of 3 times within a mile and it was able to recover 2 of the 3 times. The third time this happened it was identical to the previous 2 times. except when the RPM's drop, it doesn't catch and start accellerating at 1,500RPM's. it just drops untill the car dies.

At this time I was almost 100% sure it was the spark plugs. Just swapped them out and that didn't fixed the problem, but eliminated these what appear to be back-fires.

Also, I found out that this problem doesn't just happen around 2,000RPMs. Can even happen at low engine speeds. After this happenes when I try to start the car it catches and spudders than dies almost instantly. Im not able to start and idle it without waiting an hour or two after the anomalie. Note when I can get a full start out of it, it runs fine at idle, dies when I drive it. I also noticed when it does stall and die i'm driving up a hill or incline, could just be coincidence though.

So far I have replaced the spark plugs, that wasn't the problem.

I got a new Fuel Filter, and Ordered a new Fuel Pump Relay i'm going to replace tomorrow.

I just want to hear your opinions on this. Do you think the Fuel Pump Relay, or Fuel Filter are to blame? if not what do you think is to blame?
Any feedback at all is appreciated for my peace of mind (like I said if I don't get this fixed, I'm f**ked.)

PS: Not sure if it means anything but since this started happening the fuel tank gauge on the dash has been jumping around erratically in between just under half a tank and 3/4th a tank.

Have you checked the wiring to the fuel pump and sender unit? Usually if the pump is on the way out it will work or it wont and they it dies for good, but it sounds like you might have a faulty connection or split in a wire,especially if the fuel gauge has started acting up.

i had similar problems and replaced the in tank fuel pump, no real benefit, and then the pump on the main rail. i thought i had fixed the problem, but again after taking the car to the gas station, i could not get it restarted and had it towed home

You mentioned that you replaced the plugs, but did you replace the wires? I had a similiar problem on a non-BMW and eventually found that the plug wires were arcing to the block and causing multiple misfires and eventually a no start. Just a thought.

You mentioned that you replaced the plugs, but did you replace the wires? I had a similiar problem on a non-BMW and eventually found that the plug wires were arcing to the block and causing multiple misfires and eventually a no start. Just a thought.

Could possibly also be the coil, coil wire, distributor cap, or rotor (among other things). Can you verify that you have spark? Pull a wire off the plug, hold it near the block, and have someone crank the motor. Spark, fuel, air, and a major credit card are the necessary elements for cumbustion.

Could possibly also be the coil, coil wire, distributor cap, or rotor (among other things). Can you verify that you have spark? Pull a wire off the plug, hold it near the block, and have someone crank the motor. Spark, fuel, air, and a major credit card are the necessary elements for cumbustion.

Had the same problem. used what i will refer to as "dartboard diagnostics" (not recommended) to pinpoint problem. started with a fuel filter that was full of crud (it should be noted that the vehicle was sitting for a period prior to symptoms starting. Ran better for a few miles then same thing. pulled filter same crud. pulled tank drained and took to a radiator shop had boiled out. reassembled. same problem a little better. pulled inlet on rail flushed lines. removed injectors and cleaned inlet screens on the top. Viola. run like a top. hope this helps.

Had the same problem. used what i will refer to as "dartboard diagnostics" (not recommended) to pinpoint problem. started with a fuel filter that was full of crud (it should be noted that the vehicle was sitting for a period prior to symptoms starting. Ran better for a few miles then same thing. pulled filter same crud. pulled tank drained and took to a radiator shop had boiled out. reassembled. same problem a little better. pulled inlet on rail flushed lines. removed injectors and cleaned inlet screens on the top. Viola. run like a top. hope this helps.

-Ric

Pulling the injectors and cleaning or replacing them is a great way to improve performance in these older cars. I had to remove mine because the rearmost injector developed a very tiny leak that only occured intermittently. The gasoline spray released was practically impossible to detect, except for the odor. They were surprisingly clean, so I just spray cleaned them real well with carb cleaner and put them back in with new o-rings. It's not a difficult job, but you must remove the valve cover to gain access to the fuel rail. Lots of E-28 owners replace the original injectors with upgrades. There's also alot of info about this subject on Mye28.com.